Comserver Water Cooling Unit Review - Conclusion
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The Comserver Water Cooling Kit produced better than expected results. I thought the unit might have similar performance problems to the Swiftech H20-8500, since they both have a smaller radiator than the Koolance Exos. Perhaps due to its larger 120mm fan it was able to cool the water in the radiator more efficiently than the other two units? Or maybe its able to stay closer to the Exos' performance due to it's water block design? Either way Comserver seems to have a pretty decent performer. If only they could take care of the smaller details.
As mentioned before, the kit does not come with any type of retention mechanism to hold the water block on the CPU. They expect you to have the clip from a retail Pentium IV heatsink available. This could be a problem for many of you, as it was for me, that buy OEM CPUs knowing you will never use the retail heatsink. I feel this was a huge oversight on Comserver's part. The kit also does not come with any instructions, and Comserver's website does not have any installation or setup details. While the kit is reasonably straight forward to setup it would give me a warm fuzzy to know I have installed it correctly according to the company that designed it. The kit is also lacking a power relay. I would have like to see something come with it similar to what the Exos, or the H20-8500 have, or maybe something similar to what OCA reviewed here. Also, I would have like to have seem some water goop come with the kit, you know the stuff that helps prevent corrosion, fungi growing, and sometimes even helps the water cooling unit's performance. Finally, I would have like to see a PCI slot cover designed to work with this kit since it is an external unit. In case your not familiar with what I'm talking about, it is a modified PCI slot covers with holes drilled in it to allow the water tubing to go from the inside of the case to the outside. It also protects the tubing from being pinched or cut. You can see the one the Exos provides here.
Besides performance the next most important thing with water cooling is how much noise it makes. Again the Comserver Water Cooling Kit did very well here. While I don't have a noise meter to give you the results in decibels, the system seemed to be at about the same noise level as the Koolance Exos with its fans at high speed. It was definitely quieter the H20-8500. It didn't have the "rattley" pump noise like the H20-8500. It wasn't as quiet as the Exos with the fans on low but not that much louder. All of these units are significantly quieter than the performance air heatsinks on the market.
Highs
Lows
Price (most expensive of the three tested)
No Water Block Retention Mechanism
No Instructions
No Power Relay
No Water Additive
No PCI Slot Cover
Water Block looked very used upon arrive
I would like to thank you all for stopping by. I'd also like to thank ICEe Computers for providing this review sample, you guys should check out their store and see the new Coolermaster Musketeer and Aerogate II.
If you have any questions feel free to email me or stop by the OCA forums.
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